(Brainstorm: Since Michigan does not have an actual wolverine mascot, The Dash suggests procuring a nine-banded armadillo as a fill-in. Who wouldn't want to see that armor-plated oddity on the sidelines in the Big House? Especially since, as Wikipedia puts it, "The armadillo can jump 3-4 feet straight in the air if sufficiently frightened." That beats rolling over and playing dead when sufficiently frightened, which is what Michigan has done for the last several years against Ohio State.)

By all accounts, the Michigan fan base is insanely excited about joining the 1980s and playing at home at night. Athletic director Dave Brandon said in the spring that the school "could probably sell 150,000 tickets" for the game. And Stephen Nesbitt, co-managing sports editor of the Michigan Daily, said he knows students who are getting more for their Notre Dame ticket than the cost of the entire season student pass.

That first comment about the defense . . . ouch. I'm looking forward to that no longer being true fairly soon.

I get the snark about "joining the 1980s and playing at home at night." But while I support the night game, we don't need Forde or anyone else goading us into getting with the program and doing things like . . . Rawk Music, Scrolling Advertising, Kid Friendly Mascots, etc., etc., etc.

Forde goes on to write about other locations (i.e., LSU) where night games are more common.

p.s. The link to "basic html primer" at mgoblog disappeared again. I can't remember how to make a pretty link, instead of pasting in the website link as is. If one of you can enlighten me (again,) I'll edit this post appropriately.

Unfortunately this is what happens when these national media outlets expect their columnists to write about items on a national level; there's just no humanly way someone could know the ins-and-outs of every BCS level college football team, and yet they are expected to give their opinions about each one. So they have to form opinions based on minimal amounts of information and as a result you get douches like Pat Forde. It's funny for anyone who's not a Michigan fan (and frequents RCMB and the like) to read about Michigan "being scared" of playing Ohio State so they should have an armadillo as their mascot. Yes, I'm sure that Michigan's players were literally afraid to play Ohio State so they gave up once they got on the field.

Nothing wrong with a little national spotlight, from the biggest sports media playa in town. Too bad when you read Forde's article it has to take a few low punches to our collective guts. I get the D comment, even 'rolling over vs. OSU', but the night game comment was just lame. Nothing wrong with a classy, traditional stadium that likes to pack 109k fans for a high noon kickoff. Its garned us a reputation and TONS of national spotlight over the years playing when we do. We DO NOT need to play Thursday, Friday or Saturday night games to 'make the front page'.

Which is to say I literally don't care. I'm not going to be any more excited if the game is competing with the NBC Saturday Night Movie or the NBC sport-that-is-an-alternative-to-college-football crap-a-thon.